


The Asteroid

by TheRemnantsArchieve



Category: Science Fiction - Fandom
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-22
Updated: 2020-06-22
Packaged: 2021-03-04 00:48:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,308
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24854854
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheRemnantsArchieve/pseuds/TheRemnantsArchieve
Summary: A desperate down on her luck space junker finally catches a big break. An asteroid filled with Corellium, the most valuable mineral in the galaxy. Armed with rusty equipment, her buggy AI Babble, and hope that years of struggle would finally pay off, will she find what she is looking for? Or will there be something else lurking inside?





	The Asteroid

Lights sprang to life throughout the bulk of my ship, after I had been working on the power generator for what felt like days. The power to my small freighter had been knocked out by a strange energy pulse, which had left it to drift listlessly through the void. Luckily, when I checked my position sensors I had not drifted too far off course, nor had I lost track of what I had come out here to investigate in the first place. A small asteroid that was emitting a disjointed, wild set of energy readings, and only one thing I knew of that made sensors go nuts like that. Corellium, a powerful, incredibly rare substance that powered the most potent of energy weapons. It was only found on a few planets in a single system, however one of those planets was fractured long ago. Leaving asteroids filled with the stuff to wander the stars, and this had to be one of them, heck maybe even the last one. The myriad of dying empires and hopeful rebellions would be willing to pay top dollar for something like this. I tried not to get too excited, since mining this sort of stuff was a long, delicate process for an operation like mine. A professional mining outfit would just take the asteroid then melt the rock surrounding it until all that remained were the crystals. Sadly that would take a dedicated facility, and by my memory the nearest one was at least several days away. There was no way my freighter could haul that thing that far without it getting stolen or the ship breaking down from the weight. Not to mention without good rep, a facility could take most of the profits from the corellium anyway. I was going to have to search the entire asteroid for any Corellium on foot, not the greatest time in the galaxy but with the payout? How could I complain!

My rusty old freighter pulled up next to the asteroid, shooting out harpoons to physically attach itself to the surface so it wouldn’t drift off. My freighter was about 1/10th of the size of it. Next, I had to get on my exploration suit, a fairly junky one compared to the ones most miners use, but it could get the job done. The same could not be said for my equally junky onboard AI. Artificial Intelligence was a bit of a misnomer, in this case especially, but it was better than nothing. Hoping that it would at least boot up, I powered up my Calcutron, a small, detachable device meant to interface with almost anything. After a few glitchy load screens, the device lit up

“WHAT DO YOU W-W-WA- HAVE YOUR HEART SET ON TODAY?”  
“Great, you’re still stuck at the highest volume.”  
“WELL EXCUSE ME, MAYBE IF YOU HADN’T BROKEN MY VOLUME KNOB I WOULD NOT BE S-S-S-S-S-SCRE- HOOTIN AND HOLLERING!”

“And your thesaurus protocol is broken too.” I sighed, my breath irritated out of my mind. This was going to be even worse than the last time I had to use them, but like most things nowadays, my options were limited. I was not going to let some loud noise and a bad attitude get in my way. “Ok Babble, we have a mission. If we succeed, we’ll have enough money to fix you and this entire ship, top of the line tech, ok?”

“OH YOU MEAN LIKE LAST TIME WHEN WE GOT CH-CH-CH-CHA-WERE HOT ON THE HEELS OF SOME GIANT SPACE BEES?”  
“This is different! There are no bees this time, we’re just mining crystals. The worst thing that could happen is someone gets here while we’re mining this and we run away screaming.”  
“THE WORST THING THAT COULD HAPPEN IS WE DIE YOU MORONIC BOTTOM FE-FE-FE-FE-FE-FE-CONSUMER OF NUTRIENTS!!!!!.”  
“...eh.”  
“WOW YOU MUST REALLY BE D-D-D-D-DES-IN A HOPELESS SITUATION.”  
“Are you going to cooperate or not?”  
“...EH. MAY-MAY-MAY-MAY-PROBABLY NOT”

This little bastard was going to be the death of me, but this was about as close as our cooperation was going to get. I plugged them into the spacesuit, the interface popping up inside the helmet. It was about as buggy as everything else I owned, which was really starting to get old. Especially when this buggy interface was the only thing keeping my head from exploding in the vacuum of space. Still, if I wanted anything to change I had to take risks, and at least if my head explodes it will be quick. 

With my spacesuit about as sealed as it was going to be, I opened the airlock and stepped out onto the hunk of rock. Once I was done surveying the small area, anxiety began to poke at me. There was no sign of any crystals on the surface, which meant I’d have to dig a lot deeper than I had planned to find any of them. Which meant more time mining, which meant more time where another scavenger could find this asteroid and kill me. I began to visibly begin to panic, my breathing became laboured, my hands started shaking, as the danger of this mission dawned on me.  
“CAN YOU NOT FREAK OUT FOR ONE SINGLE M-M-M-M-M-MIS-OPERATION OF SIGNIFICANT IMPORTANCE!?”  
“Just cause you’re yelling doesn’t mean you have to be an asshole”

They were right, of course. Unless I came to my senses I’d be even more fucked than I already am, I took a deep breath, and got to work looking for any weak points in the surface.As luck would have it, there was a small fissure a short distance away. Maybe there were crystals in there? Perhaps this wouldn’t be so bad. After gliding my way over there with controlled releases of oxygen, I looked down into the fissure, where there seemed to be a cave just below it. There were no crystals sadly, but I noticed that my suit sensors were getting a sharper reading from further down. It was possible that the crystals were concentrated in one location, in fact that was about all that made sense. Taking out my laser drill, I cut a big enough hole for me to slide down into the cave, where I then activated my suit’s headlamp. Unfortunately, after sputtering to life it shut off again, and it didn’t want to turn on again. I groaned loudly, why couldn’t my suit just work decently for one mission?

“OH DON’T BE SUCH A BA-BA-BA-BA-BA-BEING OF RELATIVELY LOW PHYSICAL AGE! YOU STILL HAVE A BACKUP DON’T YOU?”  
“Yeah I just…it sucks when literally everything you own falls apart when you need it”  
“WELL IF WE MAKE IT THROUGH THIS AL-AL-AL-AL-AL-WITH AN ACCEPTABLE AMOUNT OF LIMBS AND ORGANS THAT CAN CHANGE”  
‘Hehe…yeah…if”

I took out my hand flashlight, not as good as my headlamp would have been but good enough I suppose. Shining it around the cave, I noticed that there was an endpoint to my back, which meant I was just at the cave’s beginning, or end I guess. Facing forward, the cave ahead went down far enough my flashlight couldn’t reach the end of it. At this point I realized I should activate my gravity boots, since floating around would make it a lot harder to mine the crystal. Praying that it would work, I activated them. Surprisingly, they worked just fine, my feet were as firmly attached as they would be on a liveable planet. As I stepped forward, I noticed a small spike in my sensor readings. Finally, the crystal's location was clear. It was a relief for something to actually work for once.  


It seemed as though it was just a big chunk, harder to haul but would take a lot less time to mine. Plus with a naturally large crystal you could power a lot more destructive weapons, which meant it was even more valuable than a dozen or so smaller ones. Since if you were to try and tape together smaller ones to achieve the same effect, the results were stupendously messy.  


This cave had to have wrapped around the entirety of the asteroid, as it felt like I was taking as much time walking through this passage as I did surveying the surface After the monotonous sound of my boots stepping onto rock, a new, strange sound broke up the pattern. I had stepped in something...squishy. Instinctually I jumped back, hoping I didn’t just awaken some sort of monster. In actuality, it was a lot weirder than that, and perhaps even more deadly. Flesh had stuck itself onto the passage, entirely encompassing it, turning it into a tunnel of red cartilage. 

“What would a crystal be doing in a place like that?”  
“ARE YOU ASKING ME? YOU KNOW FULL WELL MY DATA BANKS ARE COR-COR-COR-COR-COR-UNDER THE INFLUENCE OF STRANGE, DEMONIC FORCES BEYOND MY UNDERSTANDING!”  
“Wow that was kind of impressive, actually. And no I’m just...horrified by this.”  
“UNDERSTANDABLE”

I had to pace and think for a moment, what should I do? The smartest thing to do was to turn back and leave, but the sensor readings were higher than ever, the crystal was so close. How smart was it to even come here in the first place? I’m already a dumbass, might as well go full dumbass. I’d made my decision, and I stepped forward back into the cave of flesh8

“OH NO, YOU ARE NOT GOING BACK IN THERE! I REFUSE TO DI-DI-DI-DI HAVE MY CIRCUITS RIPPED FROM MY BODY BY A HORRIFIC BEAST FOR SOME CRYSTAL!”  
“Do you want to stop being glitchy garbage or not?”  
“I’D RATHER BE GLITCHY GARBAGE THAN DEAD!”  
“Well I wouldn’t, and I’m in charge. Next time you can be in charge of the mission ok?  
“THERE WON’T BE A NEXT MISSION IF YOU DON’T TURN BA-”

The AI was interrupted by what it gazed upon, while I was in complete shock. My sensors were going off the charts, clearly detecting the biggest chunk of Correlium that had ever been recorded. Except it was not, because there was no Correlium. Instead, what laid before me was a column of pulsating, leaking flesh. Pus flowed from the column and the walls like blood from a man with a dozen bullet wounds. The column shook, and something pushed against it like a child pushing against a mother’s stomach. There was something clearly in there, and it wanted out. My shock morphed into a deep terror as the cocoon began to burst, rivers of pus flowing out of the holes. The sight was so disgusting I almost threw up, but I was frozen with fear, only able to witness as this creature slowly emerged from its prison. Nothing could have prepared me for this, and I knew that the sight of this creature would haunt me for the rest of my life. 

Slowly, it stumbled into the world as if it was a child. It was a creature with no skin, vaguely humanoid in shape. Towering over me in height, and with a half-melted piece of metal covering its face. What the hell that was for I could not even begin to imagine, but now I realized I needed to run, except I could not move my legs. I could move everything else, which meant...the gravity boots were broken. 

“AI ...please turn off the boots.”  
“YOU THINK IM NOT TRY-TRY-TRY-TRY-TRY-MAKING A PASSIONATE EFFORT?.”

The creature turned its head toward me as if it was not even attached to its body, and then the body swiftly turned to face me as well. Slowly, it began to stumble over to me. I had no clue what it was going to do to me, but I wasn’t going to find out. My feet still wouldn’t move, and I desperately tried to run as it lumbered towards me. Over and over I pulled on my legs, trying to lift them up so I could move, but it was of no use, they were firmly glued to the flesh of the cave. There was no use, I was dead. This thing was going to kill me, eat me, whatever. All because of my stupid greed, all because I became a scavenger, I was now going to be eaten alive by a horrific monster.

It got close enough to me I almost touched it, and its hand began to slowly, maddeningly reach for me. I closed my eyes, hoping that this thing was a fast eater, until its hand rested on my head. That’s where it stayed, it just...put its hand on my head. Maybe it was just...peaceful! Unfortunately, any attempt at a peaceful resolution was ruined when the AI intervened.

“GOT I-I-I-I-I-IT!”

I felt my gravity boots deactivate, which would have been fine on its own. Then the emergency rocket propulsion kicked in, blasting me back in the direction I came and setting the monster on fire. It only lasted for a few seconds, but I kept up the same speed as I floated through the cave. When the creature was no longer incapacitated by the fire, I heard an unearthly, unnatural roar, and I felt it bounding towards me. It seemed as though it’s slow speed before was a ruse, as now it was almost as fast as I was. 

“SHIT SHIT SHIT SHIT FUCK SHIT FUCK FUCK.”  
“CALM DOWN JUST HIT IT WITH A LASER OR SOMETHING!!!  
“IT TOOK A FUCKING ROCKET BLAST TO THE FACE A LASER ISN’T GOING TO DO SHIT.”  
“JUST DO IT!!!”

Trying to aim, I activated my laser drill and pointed it towards the monster. Shockingly, it actually cut right through it, slicing its arm and two of its legs in half. It fell back and stopped moving, as I propelled forward. 

“I...I did it! I’m safe!”  
“I'M HERE TOO SHIT HE-HE-HE-HE-HE-HE-HE-CENTER OF NERVOUS SYSTEM ACTIVITY!”

This triumph did not last though, as when I looked back I saw that the monster was now bounding forward propelled by its one arm, only a little slower than before. What was worse than that though, was that the limbs were reattaching themselves. My laser was not going to hurt this thing at all, and I was doomed unless I could get to the surface. Thankfully, the hole I came in was just ahead, grabbing it to stop myself from moving forward. Desperately, I clawed my way back through it, hearing the fleshy, invulnerable demon get closer and closer. My head breached the surface, but before I could get out my right leg was caught, and it tried to pull me back in. 

Holding on to the edge of the hole for dear life, I could feel this thing’s desperate strength. It pulled on my leg like a 100-ton weight, and I was barely holding against it. All I could do was hold on, and hope that I could pull against it long enough to free my leg, but I knew I couldn’t. There was nothing I could do. It was going to pull me in and I was going to die. I was truly doomed. These dismal thoughts were then interrupted, the most intense pain I had ever felt in my life. I screamed louder and higher than ever in my whole life, and I floated out of the hole long enough to escape its grasp. My right leg was gone, pulled off by the creature. 

A few moments felt like an eternity, as my suit sealed the breach created by my leg’s exit. It would stop me from bleeding out, or the rest of my body from freezing to death in space. Leaving me to stay deathly silent, unsure of how to even comprehend what had just happened.

The creature’s guttural scream awoke me from shock, and adrenaline kicked in. I could not revel in my shock, if I did the creature would have me for sure. My suit’s propulsion kicked in, and I hastily guided myself to my ship. My ship was just a short distance away, but I feared that I would not make it. The ground rumbled, and parts of the surface cracked. Having just barely arrived at my ship, I watched as tendrils of flesh burst out of the rock, with the creature’s roar to harold their coming. Quickly, I climbed into the ship and activated the take-off sequence, the hooks detaching from the planet’s surface. As soon as I was able to, I lifted off into space. 

The creature had other plans, as just before I got away the tendrils grabbed the hooks that were still hanging off the ship and pulled me back. 

“No no no no no no no no no!!!!”  
“GET A HOLD OF YOURSELF AND DO SOMETHING!!!”  
“Huh, I just noticed your voice is back to normal.”  
“DO SOMETHING OR I WILL KILL YOU BEFORE THAT FUCKING MONSTER DOES!”

It was right, and I racked my brain for some way to get out of this. Then I had a thought, if the emergency rockets got me into this mess, maybe they could get me out. I slammed the emergency boost button, and the rocket’s sputtered, clearly not working.

“No you bastard, I have had you for 30 years and you are not going to fail me now!”  
“IT’S FAILED US LOTS OF TIMES, ACTUALLY.”

I slammed down on the button over and over again, realizing I was doomed. After everything, this was how I was going to go out. Eaten by some sort of giant monster asteroid. The pain was becoming clearer, and my anger was only growing. I could feel tears welling up, hateful of how it was all going to turn out. 

“ARE YOU GOING TO DO SOMETHING OR NOT?!?”  
“Could you be quiet for just one min-”

Suddenly I had an idea. A crazy idea, but what else was I gonna do? Die? Babble, Babble and their yelling rather, were how we were going to get out of here. I hooked up the AI to the ship, smiling and laughing with manic energy.

“WHAT ARE YOU DOING?”  
“I’m going to need you to scream as loudly as you possibly can at that monster.”  
“SCREAM AT IT?!? ARE YOU FUCKING INSANE?!?”  
“Yep! I’m fucking insane! Now do it!”

I sealed my suit completely from all noise, not even being able to hear the monster roaring as it slowly pulled us back into the asteroid. 3...2...1! I held up my fingers and gave the signal, and I could feel the noise that was generated by my ship’s loudspeaker system. The creature didn’t like noise, as it was bothered more by Babble’s yelling than a rocket blast to the face, or maybe it didn’t like their voice. Really it could have been either. No matter the cause, the tendrils let go of the hooks for a brief moment, and it sped away from the asteroid. Finally, I was safe.

Tears poured out of my eyes, as I curled into a ball and began to weep. Both from joy and sadness, since I may have escaped but I lost my leg. I lost so much already, money, time, years of my life, and now this. I felt myself pass out, overwhelmed by emotion, pain, and the crushing losses I had endured.  
I don’t know how long it was before I woke up in my dinky med bay, laying on top of a surgical station. My awakening had been spurned by the sound of Babble, much quieter now, trying to prod me awake. 

“Hey uh…Ven?”  
“Ughhh.....hi there.....I see you’re not yelling anymore.”  
“Well I'm using the ship’s speakers now, so it’s better.”  
“Yeah…”  
“...”  
“...”  
“...I think we should give this up.”  
“You read my mind.”  
“You could always become a farmer, or a trader, or really...anything besides this.”  
“...farming might be nice.”


End file.
